SEO for Florists: A Beginners Guide

This guide is not just some mash-up of everything-in-the-world related to SEO.

It’s much more than that!

It’s a beginners guide that is 100% focused on everything a local florist needs to know in order to rank high in Google’s local search results.

Each idea you’ll read here, each tidbit of direction, every explanation I’ll give is an actionable step that, when completed, will move you one step closer to dominating the “Flower Shop in (Your City Here)” niche!

How do I know?

I am Jeff Millett and I’ve been actively involved in internet marketing for over 10 years and have been a full-time SEO consultant for over 5 of those years.

I know what it takes to rank in today’s highly competitive internet playing field.

More importantly!

I personally ranked a flower shop in Phoenix, Arizona at the top of Google for “Flower Shop Phoenix”

That’s right!

I actually took a flower shop in Phoenix, Arizona straight to the top of Google for the highly searched key phrase “Flower Shop Phoenix” – along with a number of supporting phrases like “Flower Delivery Phoenix” and “Same Day Flower Delivery Phoenix”.

This won’t surprise you …

Once my client got to the #1 spot for “Flower Shop Phoenix” business was never the same! Her phone constantly rang off the hook!

In fact …

Business was sooooooo good that she moved to a bigger, newer location, bought a 400sf custom glass cooler, hired more employees and then (you’re going to love this) she up and left with her kids on a long trip to Alaska.

That is an absolutely true story!

What To Expect

Now, before we get too deep into the topic of SEO specifically I want you to remember this …

“Not all of the tasks I’m going to give you are easy.”

Be prepared to spend some valuable time going through each step.

It’s not easy to rank high in local search and it doesn’t always happen fast but this much is true – it’s totally worth it!

Once you start ranking high your phone will start ringing. Once your phone starts ringing you’ll start making more money and your business WILL grow.

Note: If you think that this article is going to be overwhelming – it’s not! If you think that you might need help or some more coaching in order to execute each of these steps you might check out Website Rocket’s tour page.

Here’s What We Are Going To Cover In This Complete SEO Guide For Florists

Flower Shop Basics

Even the smallest of communities can support at least one local flower shop. This is a testament to how much people rely on the services of a florist.

Whether it’s a wedding, Mothers Day or just letting someone know that you are thinking of them, everybody probably needs the services of a floral expert at least a few times a year.

The demand is there, but you have to be prepared to meet your customer’s needs in order to be successful.

Here are a few things you should know about the flower business.

Services

First and foremost, flower shops provide fresh flowers and gifts to commemorate special occasions. People rely on their florist to help them send just the right message. They also expect a flower shop to deliver.

It’s difficult for customers to spare the time during a busy workday to stop by the flower shop, pick out the right arrangement and deliver them personally. Since florists are experts in their field, they also work with couples and families to plan the flowers that will be displayed at weddings and funerals.

What Do You Need To Be Successful?

There are a few things that a florist must have in order to be successful.

First, you have to maintain an inventory of fresh flowers, which means a cooler is absolutely essential. Flowers must be kept cool and in a high humidity atmosphere.

Also, you will probably want to invest in a walk-in cooler that will contain the bulk of your inventory as well as some smaller display coolers.

Flower Shop Suppliers

A florist relies heavily on their flower supplier.

If a flower shop doesn’t have an adequate selection of quality flowers on hand, customers will quickly go elsewhere.

Make sure your flower supplier can meet the needs of your shop. Are they big enough to handle the volume of your business?

Your Storefront

Wherever you choose to set up shop, it should be easy to find and accessible to potential customers.

The floral industry is very competitive and people won’t waste much time driving around town looking for a florist they aren’t familiar with.

In addition to a good location, a flower shop must also have proper signage that stands out and clearly communicates what they do.

Inside, the store should provide sufficient work space. Your staff needs room and access to supplies to be able to work on multiple jobs simultaneously.

Delivery

Being able to deliver your product within your service area requires reliable transportation.

You can’t afford to breakdown on a summer day that leaves stranded on the side of the road while your deliveries slowly wilt.

A van is an ideal choice for floral deliveries. Make sure your delivery vehicle is attractive and well maintained, with your company name and logo clearly displayed.

Building A Trusted, Reliable Company

Being a florist is actually a tremendous responsibility that no florist should take lightly.

People depend on flower shops at some of the most important times of their lives, to convey emotions and sentiments that can be highly personal.

Offering the best possible product, presented creatively and delivered on time are crucial to helping a florist build a solid reputation with clients.

Run-Of-The-Mill Marketing: The Truth About It’s Effectiveness

Flower Shops are pretty fortunate in this one thing – when it comes to marketing there is no shortness in opportunity.

Everyone is ready and willing to take your money.

From digital to printed advertisements here are just a few …

Magazines

With so many different magazines to choose from, advertising in a wedding or floral magazine is your best chance but truthfully a hit or miss game. Knowing which periodicals are being read by your local market is near impossible.

Even worse …

Challenges facing this industry in this modern age somehow the magazine industry hasn’t affected the cost of advertising in this space as it remains relatively expensive.

E-mail

It is possible for email marketing to be effective, that is, if you have access to a qualified list of prospects which is rather hard to come by.

Don’t get scammed into buying list that are likely going to be inundated with deals and offers from other businesses. In these cases your business ads are just white noise.

The truth is …

Your absolute best and most qualified prospects are actually your own customers. Since you most likely have their personal information you already have a big advantage. If not, you need to get it.

Remember this though …

When requesting your customers email addresses it is important that you make it clear that you intend to use their info for customer relationship management purposes.

If you’re a trusted flower shop in your area it is likely that most will be interested in being made aware of special sales or promotional offers.

Some will decline, afraid that they’ll be spammed but either way, it is important that you give them a choice as to whether or not they are interested in being re-marketed.

Newspaper

Local and national based readership for newspapers has dropped dramatically in recent years, but can still be effective in some local markets through only a choice few providers.

Your challenge is finding out which ones are worth it and which ones aren’t.

Here are the facts …

Mostly the older generations are the main consumers of newspapers. Now even though this may not sound like the most ideal demographic for a flower shop it is important for you to think about how much influence grandparents have within a family.

Radio

Radio commercials in some areas of the U.S. can be a relatively inexpensive way to promote your flower shop locally.

SEO And Why It’s Important To Your Floral Business

Can you image the difference between owning a flower shop nestled in the middle of a Nebraska corn field compared to owning a flower shop smack in the middle of Time Square?

That is the difference between ranking high in Google and not ranking high in Google!

It’s estimated that between 60% and 80% of search traffic goes to the top 3 search results.

PICTURE: Upto 80% Of Search Traffic Goes To The Top 3 Results

So, what’s stopping most florist from hitting the top of the search engines?

By their very nature florists are rather creative people.

When a professional florist looks at a website they want to see something colorful, something that is welcoming and most importantly – something that has their personal touch (or signature style).

Yes, it’s true …

A website’s style, flow and presentation IS a very important aspect of online marketing although it’s all wasted unless you actually have traffic going to your website.

That’s why it is important for a flower shop owner recognize that there are many ‘technical aspects’ that absolutely MUST be touched on or else the website’s greater purpose will wither up and die.

Your #1 SEO Goal

First, let’s start with why are you are even interested in SEO.

It’s most likely that you run a small flower shop but you want more business.

or …

It’s possible that you’ve already grown to include a few local shops but you’re looking to grow even more.

Either way your goal is the same …

Are you paying attention? This is important!

Your #1 goal is that you need to focus 100% of your efforts on ranking your flower shop (or each of your flower shops) for the phrase “flower shop in (city where your shop is located)” before you do anything else!

That’s right – and there are a few reasons why.

The first reason you want to make ranking in your area your first goal is because it’s easiest to accomplish. Trying to rank for a city outside of your geographic location IS possible but it’s also slightly more difficult.

Which brings me to the second reason ranking in your area should be your first priority.

If your goal is in fact to rank outside of your area later (like a bigger metropolitan area) then ranking in your area first will put you on good terms with Google and other search engines which will then increase your chances of ranking elsewhere.

It’s true!

Website that already rank in Google for a singular term tend to rank more quickly when they begin to start targeting additional terms.

So, what’s your first goal?

That’s right! To rank #1 for the phrase “flower shop in (city where your shop is located)”

Now that you know WHAT you need to do let’s jump in and do it!

On Page SEO For Your Flower Shop Website

On Page SEO is a collection of elements found on your website. While some of these elements are actually visible on your website itself there are a number of On Page elements that you can’t see.

On Page SEO factors tell search engines like Google “what business you’re in” and “what words or phrases you should rank for”.

Below I will explain a number of elements that contribute to your On Page SEO including Keywords, Domain Name, URLs, Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Page Titles, Content and Website Design.

Keywords

Ok, so before we can actually begin working on your On Page SEO we first need to identify your keywords. Keyword that people search for on search engines like Google to find products or services.

The more focused (or targeted) your keywords the better the quality of your visitor.

Now typically this is where I’d ramble on and on about how to use keyword tools to do keyword research and confuse the heck out of you but I don’t have to …

Why?

Because you’re in the flower business and I’m an SEO guru…

I can just tell you what keywords and phrases you need to target!

Awesome, right?

I bet you didn’t think you’d be getting FREE SEO Services today?

Here are the key phrases you should be targeting!
(minus the name of the city and state you are in)

Key Phrases for Flower Shops

Flower Shop (City, State)

Flower Shop in (City, State)

(City, State) Flower Shop

Florist (City, State)

Florist in (City, State)

Flower Delivery (City, State)

Flower Delivery in (City, State)

Same Day Flower Delivery (City, State)

Wedding Flowers (City, State)

Funeral Flowers (City, State)

Mothers Day Flowers (City, State)

Simply fill in the city and state blanks for the one’s that apply and you’re ready to go!

There you are … now let’s rock and roll!

Domain Name

Google use to rank exact match domains (emd’s) higher than other domains but they don’t anymore – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

For example:

It use to be true that if you owned CarpetCleaningServicesPhoenixAz.com you’d rank #1 in Google for “Carpet Cleaning Services Phoenix Az”.

This IS NOT the case anymore!

Don’t believe me? Go ahead, Google “Carpet Cleaning Services Phoenix Az” and see who comes up – I’ll tell you who won’t be there (CarpetCleaningServicesPhoenixAz.com).

Now, having said that ….

Recent studies have shown that sub-page URL’s do perform better if they are short and include key phrases.

URL’s & SEO Friendly URL Strings

All you need to know as we get started here is that a url is your website’s address, because knowing that url actually an acronym that stands for “Uniform Resource Locator” is totally useless and a waste for brain-space.

Here’s what a url looks like!

Some people like to call it their “www” or “Web address”.

A url string is a longer version of your web address that is created when you visit other pages of your website.

Like this one.

So how do you optimize a url string?

Let me explain …

If you own a flower shop website called JillsGreenhouse.com and one of your services is wedding arrangement delivery then you might want to use a url string like this one.

You’ll see that this optimized url string includes both the service “wedding flowers” and the city and state where the service is offered “phoenix, az”.

As a matter of semantics a well crafted url string is helpful to both humans and search engines in determining relevance.

Title Tags

Title Tags still seem to be a pretty important factor when it comes to obtaining high rankings in today’s top search engines.

Next to your page content some consider it the 2nd most important piece of content on your website

A title tag is a bit of code on the back-end of your website that does 2 important things for your SEO.

It tells Google what key phrase you want to rank for.

It tells Google what title to show in Google search results

So, the only question remaining …

What Should YOUR Title Tag Say?

A perfect Page Title includes your keywords.

It’s understood that keywords are more valuable to your SEO when placed near the front of a title.

Meta Description

Your website’s meta description use-to carry significant weight as far as SEO goes but even though it no longer carries as much it is still an increadibly valuable part of your SEO strategy.

As demonstrated in the image above your meta description is the description shown in the search results of all of today’s top search engines.

Since search engines like Google will increase or decrease your rankings based on the how often users click on your your site versus your competitors it helps to have a descriptions that catches people’s eyes.

Like this ….

(picture – two descriptions “Which one are you most likely to click on?”)

Including keywords for relevancy helps if for nothing more than to leave do-doubt that the site they are about to choose infact has the information they are looking for.

Page Titles (h1 & h2 tags)

Page Titles also known as h1 and h2 tags appear on websites as big bold font at the top of your content or as sub-headings.

Today’s top search engines refer to these page titles in order to verify the subject matter of your website, or a specific page of your website. Because of this it’s helpful to include keywords or variations of your keywords in these tags.

Remember this though …

The main purpose of a page title is to persuade the reader to engage. Be sure your titles are catchy, purposeful and informative but be sure to include your keywords too!

Important note:

Too often free web templates provided for easy to build websites like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are not designed practically for SEO purposes and often include h1 and h2 tags in excess.

Having too many titles tags can confuse search engines, making it difficult to determine the primary topic of a particular page.

Content

Ok, let’s suppose you’ve done everything right up to this point.

You’re at the top of Google and now people are clicking on your site.

Did you know that if people start to leave your site quickly for whatever reason that your websites rankings will start to drop?

This is called Bounce Rate.

How do you create great page content that engages users and keeps them on your site?

Here’s a quick list of things you can do.

How To Create Great Content

You know why your visitors are here, they want flowers!

But for what? And what kind?

Answer all their questions before they ask!

Tell them why you’re the best. Tell them how you’re different. Tell them what they’ll get if they choose you. Leave no room for doubt that they are getting a superior product and a great price from a professional in the industry.

Important: Current SEO professionals like Brian Dean are noticing a correlation between high rankings and pages with a significant amount of content (2,000+ words) calling it “strength in length”.

In other words – the longer the better!

Note: Avoid using the same content on every page. Write new descriptions of the same service if necessary. Just keep it fresh people.

Keyword Rich

When writing content for your flower shop website it’s important to use words like “flower shop” and “florist” within your content.

But don’t go overboard!

Keep your keyword use to 1 time every hundred words or so. When necessary use your geographic area as well.

Sub Headings

Now, even though we’ve recommended that you write a significant amount of content the fact is that no-matter how valuable the content is most readers will turn away from a large bulky paragraph that looks like it will take 10 minutes to read.

But somehow …

An article with short sentences and sub headlines seem less threatening. So be sure to break up your content with sub titles for each new thought or topic.

Blog

All too often small business owners get caught up in the hype without really understanding the point or the ultimate objective.

Multimedia

The reason is that social media simply makes your content better. The more images, or media you have on a page the easier it is to read and the less threatening it is.

Additionally, graphs and diagrams also add perceived value to an article or page which increases the likelihood of it getting Shared, Liked or linked to from a similar article or post.

Optimize Your Pictures

Now, this section may not be what you think it’s going to be about.

What EXACTLY do I mean by “Optimize Your Pictures”?

Later on in this article you are going to read about ‘website load-times’. A website’s load time can greatly affect your businesses rankings and the size of your pictures can affect load times.

I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to hear this but those fantastic photos that you spent hours taking just to get the perfect shot of your floral arrangements. Well, you need to make sure those images aren’t too large.

Not large in the sense of size but large in the amount of memory required to hold them and the file type they are stored as.

Pictures saved as .png files tend to be quite large. I recommend .gif or .jpeg

A good file size to aim for is about 70kb, this will ensure your images show up fast and clean.

Internal Links

Internal links are just that. Links from within the content of your site that will take users to other product pages or service pages on your website.

Outbound Links

Don’t be a link snob. Meaning, don’t ONLY link to other pages of your own website.

Be consistent in linking out to other venues, local chapters and websites of happy customers if necessary. And be sure to let them know that you have.

Not only will linking to other websites help validate your location with Google it gives others a reason to link back to you.

SEO Friendly Website Design

You’re a florist and you like things to look pretty.

Having a pretty website adds only one benefit to your overall SEO campaign.

People will like it and they’ll stay longer.

But here’s the problem ….

Where are the people coming from? Because if your website is not optimized correctly, if your website does not show up high in the search results then where may I ask are the people coming from?

Let me offer you this advice since I’ve seen so many people make this mistake.

If you are just starting out or if your budget is limited, please, do whatever is necessary with your money to make your website and your online presence improve.

Better traffic to your site will yield new customers. New customers will bring in more revenue and more revenue will then allow you the opportunity to build the most beautiful website ever (that will include all of the necessary SEO requirements).

Responsive Design (a fancy word for mobile-friendly)

Significantly more users, especially local ones, are searching the web these days on phones and other mobile devices.

In 2015 Google got sick of waiting for everyone to ‘get with the times’ and added a factor to their search algorithm that penalizes websites for not being mobile-friendly.

Their data had already verified that users who could not see a mobile-friendly version of your website would leave almost immediately anyways so they opted to save them the headache and encourage you to step up.

Take away? Your site need to be mobile-friendly if you want your website to even stand a chance.

Website Load Speed

To most people this factor may seem insignificant but there are two things to consider when thinking about your sites load speed (which you can check here).

How Do I Get Backlinks?

Backlinks should come from trusted websites. Additionally, backlinks should come from websites that would typically link to a site like yours.

To demonstrate this point let’s start by defining your business.

You are a flower shop.

You are a designer.

You are a business.

You serves weddings, funerals, parties, etc

So, where would a backlink to a website like this be found?

On other flower sites.

Design & decor blogs/magazine sites.

In a business directory, a chamber of commerce site, etc

On wedding sites, funeral sites, party sites, etc

Social Media

Social Media itself is a fantastic avenue for marketing a flower shop but we’re not going to talk about that here. What we are going to talk about is how more and more social media and social signals are beginning to play a role in search engine rankings.

As described above under the topic of backlinks we know that finding a link to your site from another website is a method search engines like Google use to determine a websites popularity.

Social Media actions is mainly spurred by the ability to quickly share something available on your website. In order to accomplish this your website needs prominent social icons and share features.

Local Search

Local Search is a marketing term used to describe the process of gaining recognition fron online sources that target local users.

Examples of these are …

Google My Business

Bing Places For Business

Yahoo Local

CitySearch

Yellow Pages

Better Business Bureau

Getting local visitors to your flower shop site is obviously more effective than getting visitors that are not.

Google My Business

Yes, Google My Business is going to get it’s own section in this article.

Why?

It’s a fact. Google My Business is one of today’s local business directories.

Everyone uses Google’s local search results to find products and services near them and YOU would be smart to focus a great deal of your marketing efforts on pleasing Google My Business so that your business ranks higher.

How To Rank Higher On Google My Business

First of all, you need an account.

Second, you need to set-up every feature possible within the account.

Get Verified

Add Your Phone Number

Add A Lengthy Description

Add Lots Of Pictures

Link To Your Website

Get Reviews (more on this later)

Ranking in the top 3 of Google My Business is a small business game changer.

How To BOOST Your Google My Business Rankings!

Ready for some inside juice on how to boost your Google My Business rankings?

I’ve been working in the SEO realm for a number of years now and still I see this one factor send mediocre business to the top of local search results which in turn leads to a boost in paying customers.

Online Marketing

Online marketing in general is utilizing all available web based resources to build your flower shops visibility, accessibility and brand.

Here are some of the resources that other florists have used to build their online presence or places where they typically might acquire backlinks.

Local Chamber of Commerce

Local Groups (Farmers Markets, Family

General Business Directories (YP.com, Yelp, BBB)

Niche Blogs (Guest Posts)

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)

Google (Adwords, Google My Business, Search)

FAQ’s

A lot of these questions can be answered by reading this article but if you’re interested in having just one concern resolved today hopefully you’ll find your answer here.

Q. Do I really need a website?A. Yes. These days a website is just as important as the real estate your shop is sitting on.

Q. Is ok to have a blogspot/blogger site?A. No. These sites aren’t actually yours and lack many necessary SEO attributes.

Q. Is content on my site important?A. Yes! It is absolutely important. The more valuable content you can add to your website the better.

Q. Do pretty websites rank higher?A. No. Well, they could help rank higher but at the end of the day if your website is missing most of the On Page SEO elements described above then it’s just not possible for you to rank.

Q. Where is the best place to focus my online efforts?A. The trust is there is no ‘best’ place. Every vertical takes time and money to refine. If you’ve got more money than time you can speed things along with the almighty dollar. If you’ve got more time than money you can try Website Rocket (shameless plus).

How Can SEO Software Help You Run Your Floral Business?

A good florist knows that using the right product is absolutely necessary when trying to get the job done right.

Almost the same way you want just the right amount of balance when creating a dazzling centerpiece, you also want to use the right SEO software to balance out your online marketing needs.

Website Rocket is a resourceful tool for small business owners that offers a number of useful features, making it a must-have for florists with small to mid-sized flower shops. The world of SEO can seem scary but Website Rocket takes every aspect and brings it into focus so that you know where to concentrate your efforts. We can help you accomplish your SEO goals.

What Are Some Of The Benefits Florists Get When Working With A “DIY” SEO Software Like Website Rocket?

A Simple Interface

As a small business owner it’s vital that you focus a majority of your efforts on providing a superior product with unsurpassed service. When it comes to SEO you need something simple and easy to understand and that’s just what we offer.

Sure, some SEO programs are more complex and more detailed but what if you’re just getting started? It’s nice to know that a tool like Website Rocket is available, right?

We’re not here to sell a fancy tool with bells and whistles – we’re here to get the job done! We will help you accomplish your SEO goals one day at a time while focusing on the most important aspect of your online marketing campaign.

What Does This Mean For You?

Our simple interface allows you to dedicate the time needed to SEO effectively, so that you can spend more time improving your business. That’s something any business owner can appreciate.

Let Website Rocket help you to take the mystery out of SEO. Let us help you focus on what’s important. And you? You focus more on doing what you love.

Easy-To-Follow Tasks

Along with Website Rocket’s Simple Interface is it’s ability to break SEO down into Easy-To-Follow Tasks

Keeping up-to-date on today’s SEO trends can be challenging for even a full-time search engine specialist. You don’t have time to memorize every single tip or trick required to compete online, but we do.

We focus first on keeping up-to-date with SEO good practices and effective strategies. Then we pass those practices on to you with daily tasks that will help you to gain traction and favorable rankings.

Don’t stumble blindly through the world of SEO. Don’t waste anymore time. Let Website Rocket guide you down the road to online success.

Ease And Flexibility

Website Rocket is the SEO tool you’ve been waiting for!

The Ease And Flexibility built into our program will allow you to take your floral company to the next level without breaking the bank and without complicated tools or concepts. Our simple dashboard allows you to promote one or ten different business depending on the plan you choose.
What Should You Do?

Those easy to follow tasks seem like they’d help me get things done – I get sidetracked so easily. I’m the biggest “shiny things searcher” there is but this means I don’t really get the important things done. I want a tool that will keep me focused in the right direction.